A/N: again I have to put something up here to keep the chapter # and title aligned it seems...XD

Chapter 4

The Lab

"Hey...Gianni…" My brother's voice was a soft whisper.

I turned to face away from him, burying my face in a pillow, still desperately clinging on to sleep. "Go away…"

"Gianni, c'mon!" He shook me a little. "…is sleeping the only thing you know how to do?"

I yawned. "Pretty much…is being annoying the only thing you know how to do?"

That may have been too harsh. "What? No, well, I, uh...Gianni, I really want to go see the Pokémon Professor's lab." Is there anything this kid doesn't want to see? "..Dad's at work and Mom just left for a job interview..."

I turned around with an exasperated sigh. My brother was sitting on the floor right in between the sofa and the coffee table. "You know Jimmy we're not in Driftveil anymore...you can go out by yourself…"

"But...but...don't you wanna see the lab too?"

"I'll see it when I get my starter next month..." I closed my eyes again. "Now let me go back to sleep."

"But Gianni, I was really looking forward to going to the lab...with you."

"...then you can wait until I feel like getting up…" I groaned.

I heard him sigh, but he didn't move. "...maybe that's just what I'll do…" Although I didn't see his face, I knew he was smirking. "I'll stay right here until you're awake!" Obviously I wasn't going to go back to sleep with someone sitting there staring at me.

He think's he's won...I'm never letting that happen. "Fine, I'll get up." I tried to sound as reluctant as possible as I threw the blanket off and sat up.

"Huh...AGH!" He turned away and covered his face. "EW, GIANNI!" He sounded like he was about to puke. "Why didn't you tell me you were naked!"

"Hey, you did ask me to get up…" I stood up, walked over to the bathroom, and hopped right into the shower. I must admit, I did feel some pity for my brother. Poor kid...with cross-dressing parents and an occasional-naturist brother, he's gonna turn out pretty damn messed up…

As I rinsed my face with water, the talk my parents had had the night before returned to my thoughts. Before my Mom made that killer statement, I was actually a little creeped out. This yet-to-be-named Viridian City Gym Leader was obviously someone they knew...and were quite scared of. But that was all I could deduce. Guess I'll find out more when I battle her…

I had also started to seriously think about a starter pokémon. Bulbasaur seemed good at first, but now that I thought more about it, a pokémon that was all about flowers...I wasn't sure if that was really what I wanted. Squirtle was a water-type, and...well, coming from a port city, I honestly had seen enough of them. So, that only left…

Charmander. I had always seen charmander as a cool pokémon, but I'd never really thought about having one. It did have a pretty damn badass fully evolved form, and I couldn't see any reason not to want one.

I got out of the shower, got dressed, and was ready to go. I went back to the living room and saw Jimmy sat at the kitchen table waiting; when he heard me come into room he hesitated to look at me. He glanced over in my direction quickly and sighed in relief. "Phew...you've got clothes on…" He gave me a flat, serious look. "You know, I'm scarred for life now."

"More scarred than that time we saw Dad in a dress?"

"You had to remind me of that…"

The morning was cool, wet, and quiet. I walked silently, while Jimmy kept on talking about how excited he was to see the lab and meet the world-famous Professor Gary Oak. He was, as usual, unaware that I wasn't listening to a single word he said.

My brother and I had completely opposite personalities. He talked nonstop; it was rare for me to say more than one sentence per day. He was very close to our parents, while if I was anymore distant from them I'd be an orphan. He wore glasses and was a bit of a nerd-not a smart, cool nerd but more of an obsessive-compulsive, stupid nerd; I always wore all-black and could be considered a scene kid maybe, but I for sure was not "Emo" and that's final.

"Gianni, you're not listening to me, are you?"

I then realized I had been staring blankly ahead of me for about ten whole minutes. Oh crap he got me. "Uh...yeah, I was!"

"Then what was I talking about?"

"You were talking about how cool Professor Oak is…" That was a logical guess.

"WRONG!" he yelled excitedly. "Oh wait...yeah I was…"

I laughed a little. Just another day in the life…

Jimmy suddenly jumped up and ran ahead. "I SEE IT! I SEE IT!"

About a half a mile ahead, perched on top of a hill, was the Oak Pokémon Research Laboratory. It was a humble building of two stories with a modern-looking wind turbine behind it. Once again, despite all my intentions, I couldn't help but feel a little bit...enthusiastic. Hey, I was looking at the world's most famous laboratory-I had an excuse.

Jimmy was impatiently waiting for me at the front door of the lab.

"Gianni, what took you so long?"

"That is one long-ass staircase…" I panted for a few moments. "Alright, let's go in."

My brother suddenly went very tense. He clenched his teeth and looked like he was about to explode. I went to open the door and he let out a few high-pitched noises. "I can't believe I'm actually about to set foot in the most famous Pokémon lab in the world!"

I sighed as I grabbed handle and pulled. "Please...don't embarrass me too much…"

We walked into a hallway with several doors. There wasn't a person in sight.

"Jimmy...are you sure we're even allowed to be here?"

My brother remained quiet.

Now I was angry. "You know, Jimmy, you really gotta stop doing this. You can't just-"

One of the doors opened, and out came that blue-haired kid Andy. "Ugh...not you again…" I'm not sure if he was pretending to be snobbish with the way he closed his eyes as he spoke, or if he was for real.

Before I could say anything back, someone else came out right behind him. "Andy, who is-" Kari lit up when she saw me. "Oh, hey Gianni! What are you doing here?"

"My little brother wanted to check this place out..."

"And you came with him? Aw, that's sweet!"

Seriously? Both Jimmy and Andy stifled a laugh.

I quickly though of something to say. "Uh...is your Dad around? My brother really wanted to meet him." Jimmy stopped chuckling and began nodding furiously.

"He's kinda busy right now." Jimmy hung his head at hearing Kari's response.

I started to turn around. "Oh...alright then, maybe we'll come back tom-"

"He'll be done pretty soon. In the meantime you can hang out in the corral with us!"

Jimmy became happy once again. "The corral?!" He turned around and pleaded with me. "Please, Gianni, can we?"

I shrugged. "Sure…"

"YES!"

"Alright then, right this way!"

It was quite a sight, to be honest. There was a clear, grassy field split by a pristine stream, and beyond the stream were hills, forests, some rocky areas, lakes, and even a place that looked like a miniature desert.

"So this is the Oak Corral!" Kari stated the obvious. She, my brother, and I were standing in the field. Andy and Sierra were just joining us. "All trainers from Pallet Town are free to leave their pokémon here. We have a quite a few exotic pokémon sent from trainers that have traveled really far."

My brother was pleased to be at this place, to say the least. "Cool! Do you have any pokémon from Unova?"

"Of course! Look-there's Braviary!" Kari pointed to stoic avian pokémon flying above.

"Wow! Gianni, look! Remember seeing these back home?"

"No, I don't remember them all. The last time I was in Unova was a whole two days ago!" I said sarcastically.

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry about my brother...he's very hard to please…"

What? There is no way in hell he just apologized for something I said! I glared at him but he didn't notice or care.

"Oh, it's alright," Kari responded. "My father is the same way…" She scanned the corral. "Oh, I think I see Samurott down by the lake! C'mon!" She ran down towards a lake and Jimmy followed.

I looked behind me to see if Sierra and Andy were still there, but they had disappeared. Once again, I was alone. The way I always liked it.

I spotted a picnic table in the shade of some trees in a thicket and went over and sat down. It was peaceful. Calm. Quiet. I took a deep breath and relaxed.

Suddenly, I heard some scurrying around in the thicket. I looked over could see a small flame being very carefully maneuvered through the thicket. I was puzzled for a second, until I heard a high-pitched "Char!"

Ooh! A charmander! The thought of seeing a charmander actually gave me some excitement; I had made my decision to start with one but I hadn't even seen one yet. I walked over to the edge of the thicket and kneeled down. "Come here, buddy!"

The charmander seemed overjoyed to get a response. I heard a few more scurries, then a salamander-like creature burst out from the bushes, and came to stand face-to-face with me.

My expression went from excitement to pure amazement, even a little bit freaked out.

Yeah, it was a charmander. A simple, little charmander. But there was, oh, just one little thing that was off about it…

It was as freaking black as a darkrai.

Holy shit!

Chapter's a bit short but there wasn't really much to say, more of just setting things up.